Ciudad Encantada

Ciudad Encantada
Ciudad Encantada
IUCN category III (natural monument or feature)
	Rock wall in Ciudad Encantada
	Location of Ciudad Encantada
Location	Cuenca, Spain
Coordinates	40°12′29″N 2°0′35″W / 40.20806°N 2.00972°W
Area	250 acres (100 ha)
Established	1929

The Ciudad Encantada (English: Enchanted City) is a geological site near the city of Cuenca, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain in which the erosive forces of weather and the waters of the nearby Júcar river have formed rocks into distinctive and memorable shapes.^[1]

It was declared a Natural Site of National Interest on 11 June 1929.

Origin of the formations

The rock formations of Ciudad Encantada are karst formations made of limestone and dolomite, which date back to the Cretaceous period, approximately 90 million years ago.^[1] Rain falling on the original limestone plateau wore down the porous limestone, leaving behind the more resistant dolomite. Because the dolomite was not always distributed evenly in the original rock, the result was the irregularly eroded shapes that form the Ciudad Encantada.^[1]

Shapes of rocks

The rock formations that have been named include:

Mushroom rocks Seta ('Mushroom')
Puente ('Bridge')
Cara ('Face')
Convento ('Convent')
El mar de piedra (The stone sea)
Teatro ('Theatre')
Hipopótamos ('Hippopotami')
Amantes ('Lovers')
La foca (The seal)
La tortuga (the turtle)
Los osos (the bears)

In film and television

Ciudad Encantada appears as a location in the following films:

Gallery

Rock walls
Man's face
Other mushroom rock
The stone sea
Battle of the crocodile and the elephant
The mushrooms
A drawing of Ciudad Encantada, circa 1875, published in Annals of the Spanish Society of Natural History

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. pp. 100. ISBN 0-89577-087-3.

External links

This article about a location in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, Spain is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[readersnatural-1] Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. pp. 100. ISBN 0-89577-087-3.

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